Fire kills 6 children in Chicago

CHICAGO -- Without electricity since May, an impoverished immigrant family living on the third floor of a brick apartment building on Chicago's North Side was using candles for light. It was a deadly option.

About 12:20 a.m. yesterday, a candle started a fire that raced through the three-bedroom apartment, killing six children ranging in age from 3 to 14 years old.

Some of the children screamed ``we're burning" as neighbors frantically tried to rescue them before firefighters arrived.

The mother of five of the victims was injured, along with three siblings.

``What do you say?" an emotional Chicago Fire Commissioner Ray Orozco said. ``It's been the worst in a long time. The only thing you can do is just pray for these poor people."

Orozco said the burned out apartment had no smoke detectors, but the landlord said each unit was wired with the detectors at the time the tenants moved there.

The dead were identified as: Kevin Ramirez, 3; Suzette Ramirez, 10; Eric Ramirez, 12; Idaly Ramirez, 6; Vanessa Ramirez, 14; and Escarlet Ramos, 3.

Their mother, Augusta Tellez, 43, was hospitalized and released. Altogether, nine children were in the apartment with Tellez, eight of whom were hers. Officials said they did not know whether Escarlet Ramos was related to the other children.

When firefighters arrived at the apartment building in Rogers Park early yesterday, they saw smoke billowing from the third-floor apartment and residents leaning out windows looking for help. One of those was a boy on the third floor, who was rescued by ladder.

``The mother came running out with one child in her arms, screaming to the neighbors that there were other children inside," said fire Commander Will Knight. ``They asked her how many and she said `eight.' "

Al Tillman was visiting a friend in the area when he heard the children shouting for help. He ran up to the third floor and crawled into the smoke-filled apartment, where he managed to grab a child's arm. He dragged the boy outside and handed him to paramedics.

``I'm shaken up because the other children didn't make it," Tillman said. ``I only heard one child. I wish I could have saved the others."

Robert McClendon, who was in a nearby building, saw flames in the third-floor kitchen of the apartment where the fire broke out. McClendon ran up the rear stairs and when he reached the top, he heard children screaming.

``I can't see them, but I can hear them," McClendon said. ``I was down there with a flashlight, trying to peer through the smoke." The flames and heat forced him back, he recalled.

Derrell Dixon said two children appeared at a window and he and several other neighbors held up a blanket, trying unsuccessfully to get the youngsters to jump to safety.

``The kids were screaming and screaming `Help! Help! We're burning, we're burning,' " said Dixon, 22.

Firefighters found most of the children huddled in the apartment's front room, not far from the spot where the fire probably started, said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

The mother and a 3-month-old girl were discharged from Thorek Memorial Hospital after being treated for smoke inhalation, nursing supervisor Rosario Fordley said. Two other children were at other hospitals and their conditions were not released.

Commonwealth Edison spokesman John Dewey said the apartment hadn't had electricity since May, but he wouldn't say why it was turned off, citing confidentiality policies.

Orozco said smoke detectors were found in common areas of the building but not the gutted apartment.

``We have working smoke detectors in all of our apartment units at the time the tenants sign their leases," said Jay Johnson, the owner of the building. All the smoke detectors in the building are hard-wired to the electrical system, he said.

Tenants in the first and second floors of the building were allowed back into their apartments before sunrise.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.